In the coming week, Northfielders will remember longtime Northfield News writer and editor Maggie Lee, who died Monday, July 8, at 92. She was also a founder of the Northfield Historical Society. Today the Collaborative celebrates her life with these photographs and programs.

On a personal note, I worked with Maggie for several years. Some of the things I will remember her for:

• Even when she was in her late 80s, Maggie came in to the the newspaper office on Saturdays;
• She loved Northfield history;
• The purple and the cats, of course — she even kept pictures of her cats in her purse! I seem to remember her once telling me she didn’t necessarily start wearing purple all of the time because she loved it, but someone complimented her once on a purple outfit, and eventually she wore the color so often that people expected it. Later when I asked her about that story, though, she couldn’t remember it;
• She stopped every day to pet the cat at the pet store;
• She was allergic to lots of things. I remember her saying that she couldn’t be nursed as a baby and they had to use some cutting-edge substitutes for that time.
• She was born in the Northfield Hospital when it was at Eighth and Water streets. Her telling me that was the first time I learned there was a hospital at that location;
• Maggie had lots of snacks — in her desk drawer, or in a little baggie when she was paging through the bound newspapers;
• She liked root beer floats at the Cocoa Bean;
• The one day she didn’t wear her wig to work;
• She got around! A street view of Google Maps pictured her crossing the street at Union and Fourth in 2007.
• But she always sat in the same place at church.